Aquafresh and Expanding Waistlines

About eight months ago, I started developing a recipe application for a client project that didn't end up moving forward. I started thinking though— a recipe app and CMS might be a cool thing to have for my own Digital Food Works site (and another, separate project that I'm working on) — and so I restarted my development of the recipe application, using DFW (this site) as a sandbox.

As I started implementing the front-end of the recipe app though, I noticed a couple of things that I wanted to change on the main DFW site — and so I've taken a slight pause to get some of these new site-wide changes in place.

First off, I've added 200px to our maximum site width, giving me two "desktop" modes, an odd little "I'm not sure who has a device this size" mode, and two dedicated "mobile" modes.

This was important for two reasons — the recipe app is probably going to display in a 2-column format on wider screens and a 1-column format on mobile. Certain iDevices are now triggering a viewport that is larger than what I was scripting for, and I wanted to make the most of all available space. The second reason, (and this is more for some of the other sites that I operate than here at DFW), it gives me space to use more standard banner ad sizes. The strange little "middle mode" will probably trigger a lot of text-based responsive sized ads… but the dedicated desktop mode should be able to handle two stops of common ad sizes.

Next up, I always had this hinky feeling about the headline font and the reading font that I had been using on the previous DFW v2 site — I still can't quite put my finger on it. I think it was a little too compressed. Anyway… I've implemented a new font system here on DFW v3 which I like a little better.

It's tough getting a font system to work and be readable "everywhere" (i.e. on all sized devices), and I'm still getting used to the new, wider viewport — but I think all in all — it's a step in the right direction. The font system does lean a little more to "casual readability" and not "stats and data" so much.

Speaking of "fresh", there's a new "coming from Instagram" directory and page called "/Fresh". Basically, I discovered (on mobile versions of Instagram), the link in your bio opens in Instagram's own little browser and not the default system browser. It seems to render a little slow in comparison to a native browser. So I created a streamlined page with no menu system or complex scripting, that would act as a "table of contents" for the most recently posted articles and whatnot. It seems to knock off a few seconds of load-in time, so that's good.

Getting back to the main site, I have implemented my "accept cookies and web beacons" script here as well (blagh), it's the same routine that I created for the Mealtrip.com site.

The last change is probably the most visible — I've updated the site to make use of an Aquafresh and Gray color system. The older v2 "Chocolate Brown" color system wasn't really working for me anymore. Saturation and darkness levels of the brown seemed to change a lot on different systems.

I'm not 100% sold on Aquafresh's ability to be "serious" should the need arise — it seems to be very fresh, friendly, light and inviting… but we'll see.

Which kind of leads me one more question about the DFW site in general. What is it? DFW started out as on online portfolio of sorts. Now that I've started writing about various aspects of projects, it feels like it's evolving into something else — but I'm not quite sure what that is — yet.

Once I get the recipe app in place along with a cool little "national food days database" page that I've also been working on, the site will seem to get even further away from being a typical "photography and design" portfolio.

At the end of the day, I'm having so much fun keeping the site updated and growing — and I'm just really happy about the work that I'm able to share with the world, through the site pages. There's a couple more changes and additions that I'd like to make to the interface of course, but the bulk of the "big edits" are done for a little while.

One of the really fun things about running multiple sites, is that you never really run out of things to do! We're getting close to Festival and Holiday Season over at Mealtrip.com — so it's time to switch gears, and get some content together for those sites!